There has been quite a bit of buzz for a while about Canadian swimming phenom Summer McIntosh of Toronto, Ontario. On Wednesday, sports fans on the global stage saw what that buzz was all about.
McIntosh nốt only broke the World Junior Record in the women’s 200 metre butterfly, she destroyed it. McIntosh’s gold medal winning time at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary was half a second faster than the previous junior record time set by Suzuka Hasegawa of Japan in 2017.
McIntosh also posted a Canadian record in winning the gold medal in the women’s 200 metre butterfly with a time of 2:05.50. Hali Flickinger of the United States won the silver medal with a time of 2:06.08. Yufei Zhang of China won the bronze medal with a time of 2:06.32. McIntosh reached the podium by 1.59 seconds over Regan Smith of the United States, who had a fourth place time of 2:06.79.
This was not McIntosh’s only medal on Wednesday. She was also a major part of the Canadian team that won the bronze medal in the women’s 4×200 metre freestyle. McIntosh’s time of 1:54.79 would have won the gold medal in the women’s 200 metre freestyle, but McIntosh was held out of the individual event to prepare for the team competition. The Canadian team of McIntosh and Penny Oleksiak of Toronto, Ontario, Kayla Sanchez of Scarborough, Ontario and Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, British Columbia posted a third place time of 7:44.76. The United States won the gold medal with a time of 7:41.45. Australia won the silver medal with a time of 7:43.86. Canada reached the podium by 0.86 seconds over China, which had a fourth place time of 7:45.72.
McIntosh also posted the world junior record in the women’s 200 metre freestyle. Mollie O’Callaghan of Australia had the previous world junior record in the women’s 200 metre freestyle with a time of 1:55.11 in the heats at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. The world record in the women’s 200 metre butterfly belongs to Zige Liu of China (2:01.81) at the 2009 Chinese National Games. The world record in the women’s 200 metre freestyle belongs to Federica Pellegrini of Italy (1:52.98) at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome.
Team Canada won two more medals ay the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday. In the men’s 100 metre freestyle, Joshua Liendo of Markham, Ontario won the bronze medal, and in the women’s 50 metre backstroke, Kylie Masse of Windsor, Ontario won the gold medal.
Liendo posted a third place time of 47.71 seconds. David Popovici of Romania won the gold medal with a time of 47.58 seconds and Maxime Grousset of France won the silver medal with a time of 47.64 seconds. Liendo reached the podium by .08 seconds over Zhanle Pan of China, who had a fourth place time of 47.79 seconds.
It should be noted that the women’s 50 metre backstroke is a non-Olympic event. Masse posted a time of 27.31 seconds for her third career gold medal in the World Aquatics Championships, a Canadian record.
So far at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, Canada has won seven medals. They have won two gold medals, three silver medals and two bronze medals.
